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The use of corporal punishment in Middle Tennessee's public schools has largely dropped even though the practice of paddling still has support.

Data from the U.S. Department of Education show all but one district surrounding Davidson County had fewer instances of paddling between the 2009-10 and 2011-12 school years.

A 2012 University of Chicago survey showed more than 70 percent of respondents supported using corporal punishment. The practice was found especially favorable in southern states.

Debates about spanking returned to the national conversation recently after Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was charged with child abuse in early September after police said he injured his 4-year-old son while disciplining the child with a wooden switch.

Tennessee is one of 19 states that allow corporal punishment at public schools and one of the 10 states that use the practice most often. There are pockets of disagreement: Metro Nashville, Williamson County, Franklin and Murfreesboro City Schools ban the practice entirely.

The rate of paddling dropped by more than half in Nashville-area school districts that allow the practice, according to federal data gathered between 2009 and 2012.

That decline can be tied to greater public education about how spankings affect students, said Linda Richey, a retired early childhood education professor who taught at Tennessee Tech University and Middle Tennessee State University.

Richey cited multiple studies that show corporal punishment does little to change actual behavior. Instead, she said, paddlings only punish.

When spankings aren't mild, their physical and emotional effects are even worse, she said.

"It's like a continuum," she said. "Where does the punishment stop and the abuse start?"

Supporters of corporal punishment see it as a straightforward, manageable way to maintain discipline, said Jeff Cordell, a former principal and current Sumner County school board member. He said paddling was effective when he worked in the schools.

"If it's used right, there's no need to get rid of it," he said.

When he led White House High School, he said, he gave students a choice to either have a few brief licks or have a lengthier, in-school suspension.

In the survey, Sumner County Schools reported 135 corporal punishments, twice as many instances than the rest of Nashville-area school districts combined.

Sumner County Schools spokesman Jeremy Johnson declined to speculate about why the district's corporal punishment rate was far higher than other area school districts.

He reiterated that they respect the wishes of parents when it comes to paddling. In many cases, he said, parents request the schools administer the punishment themselves.

In other districts, such as Rutherford County Schools, school officials are asking for parental input and making sure principals can discipline in whatever way they see fit.

"Our Code of Discipline gives principals multiple options to use depending on the severity of the behavior issue," Rutherford County Schools spokesman James Evans said in an email. "Many principals have decided on their own to use other discipline options other than corporal punishment."

When Nashville resident Nick Shell and his wife started looking at places to move around Middle Tennessee this summer, they wanted to make sure their 4-year-old son Jack would start kindergarten.

After deciding on Spring Hill, the Shells were relieved to learn the district's discipline policy does not include paddling.

Shell, who works for a Cool Springs-based transportation company and writes a parenting blog, challenged whether there was a right way to spank or paddle.

He said paddling reflects a double standard that "takes the most innocent, defenseless person" and subjects them to physical pain when similar acts on others could lead to criminal charges.

While he recognized what he called a parent's right to discipline their children, he said that right shouldn't extend to a public classroom.

Hendersonville resident Kris DeKock said she would rather have a school district communicate with her when her children misbehaved rather than rush to a paddling.

If discipline was needed though, she and her husband were comfortable with giving a swat.

"They'd have more fear about what would happen at home than what their teachers would do to them," she said.

At home, she's a strong advocate for spanking, saying it reverses behavior that other punishments failed to correct or deter. Without that type of enforcement, she said children aren't learning a connection between their actions and consequences.

Even though Peterson's story gained national attention, it is unlikely to change parents' personal views.

"There's a lot of discussion, a lot of publicity," Richey said. "But in the end, it dies down."

Any change, she said, comes slowly and with gradual support from communities who want it.